RME@MMU

Yvette Solomon

Yvette is Professor of Education at Manchester Met, and has been researching in mathematics education for over thirty years.  She is interested in the relationship between how students learn mathematics and teachers’ pedagogic practice, and has managed projects on teacher education, student inquiry in design challenges, and classroom interaction.

She has worked with Sue and Steve on the impact of RME in post-16 GCSE resit classrooms, where the RME approach made a real difference not just to students’ understanding but also their engagement with mathematics.  More recently, she led the Key Stage 3 randomised controlled trial funded by the Education Endowment Foundation.

Sue Hough

Sue is a Senior Lecturer in mathematics education at Manchester Met, having worked as a mathematics teacher in secondary schools in England for 18 years before she joined the university. She has managed a number of projects relating to the use of approaches based on Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) in UK schools and is a co-author of the ‘Making Sense of Maths’ series of books.

Sue led the Nuffield-funded project on the impact of using RME-based approaches with Post-16 GCSE resit students. Most recently, she worked as materials author and lead trainer on the Key Stage 3 RME trial.

Steve Gough

Steve has 20 years of experience working in secondary schools in a variety of roles. He has been a member of senior leadership teams and he was head of mathematics for 10 years. As a teacher researcher, he worked on a number of initiatives with Manchester Met and, in 2008, he joined the mathematics education team at the university on a permanent basis. Since 2004, he has worked extensively on the development of a classroom approach to learning mathematics based on Realistic Mathematics Education. He co-authored the ‘Making Sense of Maths’ book series.

Steve worked with Sue and Yvette on the post-16 GCSE resit RME project funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and was a materials author and trainer on the Key Stage 3 trial funded by the Education Endowment Foundation.

Vinay Kathotia

Vinay joined the Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) team as Senior Research Associate in April 2018. He is excited about RME as it weaves together ‘making maths meaningful’ and ‘making meaning with maths’. Before joining the team, Vinay worked at Cambridge Mathematics, helping ‘map’ the learning and use of number. Previously, he taught at Harris Academy Battersea, an inner-city comprehensive school, and has also headed the mathematics education programmes at the Nuffield Foundation and the Royal Institution.

Since joining the team, Vinay has also worked with the Vidya Bhawan Society in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to introduce RME ideas.  In August 2021 he moved to take up a post at the Open University, but he is still part of our work on RME.

Jo Kennedy

Jo is a Senior Lecturer in mathematics education at Manchester Met, having previously worked for twenty years in secondary education in a variety of roles.  She became interested in Realistic Maths Education when she joined the university and became involved in visiting participating schools, observing lessons and interviewing both learners and teachers.

Jo worked as a materials author and trainer on the Key Stage 3 trial, drawing on her extensive knowledge and skills as a mathematics teacher and educator.

Kate O’Brien

Kate works as Research Assistant on the Key Stage 3 RME trial. She is also currently engaged in her own doctoral research at MMU, which mingles the aesthetic practices of mathematicians with the mathematical practices of fibre artists.

Kate is trained as an artist and mathematician. Although she hails from the USA, the place where RME was first used in an English-language setting, she only learned about this approach to mathematics education through her work at Manchester Met. She is excited about what happens when mathematics curriculum is opened up to real world contexts and exploratory questions.

Fiona Haniak-Cockerham

Fiona worked for 12 years in a range of secondary schools in the Manchester area and progressed to the role of Assistant Headteacher before joining the secondary mathematics team at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008. Since joining MMU she has taken a particular interest in different methods of teacher training and has been involved in a variety of pilot programmes, most recently iTeach and the University schools model.

She also works with A-level teachers in a variety of secondary schools to develop their mathematics pedagogy on the ‘Teaching Advanced Mathematics’ course.  Fiona worked as a trainer in the Key stage 3 RME trial.

Marisa Bartoli

Marisa is Director of Mathematics for the Laurus Trust group of schools in Manchester and first adopted Realistic Mathematics Education in 2004.  She has used this kind of approach with both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, and has introduced RME across her department and other schools in the Trust.  She is Secondary Lead for the North West 1 Maths Hub and has been involved with the Hub for several years. She visited Shanghai as part of the national mastery programme.

Marisa worked as a materials author in the Key Stage 3 RME trial, and as a trainer, with specialist expertise in current practice in classrooms.

Frank Eade

Frank is a consultant in mathematics education who worked at Manchester Met for 28 years before moving to the Cayman Islands as a Numeracy Specialist in 2011. He has been involved in a number of projects relating to the use of Realistic Mathematics Education in UK schools and is a co-author of the ‘Making Sense of Maths’ series of books. He organised the 6th International RME conference (September 2018) in the Cayman Islands.  Frank worked on the Key Stage 3 RME trial as materials author and trainer.

Paul Dickinson

Paul worked for 20 years in secondary schools in a variety of roles, before joining Manchester Met in September 2000.  In 2004, he joined the team working on the development of a classroom approach to mathematics teaching based on Realistic Mathematics Education, working on a number of research projects.  He is a co-author of the ‘Making Sense of Maths’ books published by Hodder.

Paul worked on the Key Stage 3 trial as a materials author.